Jokes On Me
by AfterTheApocalypse
Summary: "Grandfather Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pure-blood". Why couldn't I have just kept my big mouth shut?


**Thank you** BrilliantLady **for fixing all those annoying mistake that always seems to just materialize when I write.**

 **Disclaimer: I am not J.K Rowling, which means that I don't own the Harry Potter series and the amazing world that exist inside it.**

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It had been a joke. Just a joke I said without really thinking about it. To lighten up everyone's mood. Not something to be taken seriously. Or as a challenge.

But, as I had been told years later, it had been. Which I should have predicted. I was a bloody Auror for Merlin's sake, _and_ I was young once too! Not to mention one of those kids that tended to do exactly what adults and authority figures told me not to.

But in my defence, most of those stupid things I did had been to save lives and take down one of the most evil wizards that this country has ever had. I wasn't just doing exactly what my father had told me not to just for the hell of it. I hadn't intentionally been doing any of those things with the goal to drive my father mental. Even if that may or may not had happened some of those times.

Even so, I am fairly certain that if my own father had pointed out a kid when I was eleven and implied that I should stay clear of that kid then I bloody well would have done it. At least… I like to think so.

But oh no, not my daughter. Rosie just had to drag her poor cousin Albus with her over to talk to the miniature Malfoy.

For research, she had told me later. Because her mum had always told her that you should always double check things and never just assume that what you have heard is factual. I suppose she felt that was especially true when the information source was a stubborn man with a grudge and an inability to see that a young boy wasn't his father. Something I don't think you can blame me for – the kid had looked _exactly_ like his father had at that age. Minus the ridiculous hairstyle.

Anyway, it's not like Rosie had known about the whole hating-each-other-during-our-whole-time-at-Hogwarts thing. That isn't really something you want to reminisce about to your kids. Or at all to be honest. When I questioned Rose about that point she gave me _that_ look that she had inherited from Hermione and told me that it had been pretty obvious.

I have to admit though, the fact that the little weasel had gotten sorted into Gryffindor together with Rosie and Albus had made the whole thing a little bit harder. On one hand, the kid must have wished really hard for it, as if just to make me question my already certain opinion of him. Typical Malfoy move. On the other hand... every time I had felt down I just had to imagine the face Draco Malfoy must have made when the news about junior had reached his snotty manor.

Made my year, is what it did. Even Hermione had smiled a bit at the news. Which I had reminded her of every time she had caught me sniggering about blonde prats in Gryffindor, and chided me for it.

And though I can't say that I was particularly happy about it, I had accepted that one of Rosie's best friends happened to be the son of one of the biggest gits in the country. I hadn't spoken to the kid that much, but the few times I had the blonde boy had been polite, if not a bit awkward. And he'd had enough sense to be a bit afraid of me.

Then puberty had happened.

I am not sure if I should be thankful that Hogwarts is a boarding school so that when my little girl started to see boys as more than annoying, I wasn't around to witness it, and could pretend that she was still eleven and completely uninterested in any kind of romantic relationship with them. Or if I should curse the fact that I couldn't hunt down all those hormonal gits that was I certain surrounded my daughter.

Thank Merlin for all her cousins that could keep an eye on her for me. Well, it was mostly James, and not because I had asked my nephew, mind you. I may be a bit protective but I know that there is a line and that I should not cross it. Hermione would kill me if I did.

No, it is because James can't keep his gob shut about anything. That mixed with my best friend's oldest son's unnerving skill at uncovering secrets makes him person number one to avoid if you have anything you want to hide.

So when I had attended James and Louis' graduation ceremony at Hogwarts the first thing the kid had blurted out was something along the lines of, "Lucas Longbottom and Cornelia Sharp accidentally walked in on Rose and Malfoy in a broom closet last month! And they were _snogging_! Rose and Malfoy that is. Well... Luke and Sharp were definitely thinking of doing it to, but the broom-closet was already taken - by _Rose_ and _Malfoy_!"

That boy may lack the Weasley name and hair color but he certainly knows how to break news like one.

Personally I don't think that I overreacted. If someone told you that your daughter where fraternizing with the son of someone like Malfoy, you would not be too happy either. So I don't regret trying to hunt down that hormonal little twat and take care of the problem. In a completely legal way of course. No body no crime, right?

Neither Hermione nor Ginny agreed. Harry hadn't been either until I asked if he would have been as fine with it if it were his own daughter. After that I at least had my best mate on my side.

I didn't manage to get to mini-Malfoy that day. Rosie, however, well... as soon as she came home I told her exactly what I thought of her new relationship with the blonde prat. She didn't talk to me for a week after that. James, she ignored for the rest of the summer.

Then it was time to take her and Hugo to the station to begin their seventh and fourth years, respectively. My feelings about it had been mixed, on one hand, I would finally get the chance to set that _boy_ straight, but on the other hand... he and Rosie would then leave for Hogwarts and be completely unreachable. Well, beside letters, but those barely counted. You can't keep teenage boys away from your daughter with letters, unless you curse them or something. But even though I may have thought about it I didn't do it. And it was not only because Hermione forbade me, I swear!

Anyway, I hadn't actually needed to search for the blonde brat at the station. He came up to me all by himself, and said hello. The only reason why I hadn't hexed him right then and there (the kid had been seventeen, which would have made it a bit less illegal) was because it had taken me a bit by surprise. And made me wonder if he was off his rocker. Where was the kid's self-preservation?

Then he had gone on and talked about how he was aware that we knew that he was dating Rose. I think he said something more but... I was pretty busy with glaring at him – it was the only thing I could do. Not only because Hugo and Hermione had a steady grip on each of my arms – that I probably could have gotten out of. I just didn't want to deal with that hag Skeeter by causing a scene, or any other gossip of a journalist. It hadn't stopped me from threatening the little tosser, however.

Some months later came their graduation. Rosie had been at the top of her class, just like her mother had been. That had been the most memorable thing about it. The second? Having to stand with Draco-bloody-Malfoy while our wives took photographs of my daughter and Malfoy Junior standing together. And some with Albus too. Thank Merlin for Harry, it's always good to outnumber the enemy.

After that, Rosie stayed home for a while, living with us and working in the Ministry, in the Department of International Magical Co-operation. Sure, her poorly named _friend_ came over sometimes, to dinner and so on. But I pretended that they still had the mentality of little kids and that their friendship was completely platonic.

Then Rosie moved out.

It was around a year after she'd graduated. It would have been completely fine, she was a mature nineteen year old with a good job and a bright future. So what was the problem? That blonde little wanker, that's what. Because he was also moving out of his gigantic manor.

Into the same flat as my daughter.

I actually hexed him that time. Hermione and Rose are still angry about that, and the fact that I never got around to apologizing to _him_. Which I am never going to do, for I don't regret it one bit. Them moving in together had been what finally got me to realize that they were serious, and that pretending that they weren't dating was not an option.

That was five years ago, almost six, and Rosie is now 25. Standing before me in a white dress she's a roiling mix of emotions - nervous, happy and terrified all at the same time.

I can relate - I had felt pretty much exactly the same before my own wedding.

Though, I can't say that I am too calm right now. My daughter is getting married! To a _Malfoy_! A pretty decent one, sure, but still. It means that I will be related to Draco Malfoy, we'll be fathers-in-law. To each other's kids!

Bloody hell...

Rose is happy though, more happy than I have ever seen her. More afraid too but... if she didn't want to do this she wouldn't be here.

That's why I do it. Manage it. Because it makes her happy, he makes her happy. And as long as that remains the case, I will be fine with it. The kid is pretty alright after all, for a Malfoy.

So when Rosie and I walked up the aisle arm in arm and I handed her over to Scorpius Malfoy I didn't feel regret. A bit sad, yes, but I didn't feel like this was a mistake. Like they were making a mistake. Because I was certain that they weren't.

Since those two have stayed, stubbornly, together for all these years I think it has to stick. They have had too many people try to separate them, and fail, for it to end in heartache.

…Mind you, if they end up divorcing I will claim to have always known right from the start that the blonde mini-weasel was all wrong for Rosie. I will also hunt him down and curse him into oblivion for hurting my daughter.


End file.
